


Thin Line

by BlueDarknessIceHeart



Series: Fictober 2019 [11]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Established Relationship, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Past Character Death, Past Relationship(s), The attack on the dreadnaught, revival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2019-10-19
Packaged: 2020-12-24 08:51:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21096746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueDarknessIceHeart/pseuds/BlueDarknessIceHeart
Summary: Fictober19#12: "What if I don't see it?"“Surely so long away from us hasn’t wiped the Skyshock from your memory, hasn’t scrubbed the darkness from your blood.”She’d felt that tug more so now than she ever had in the Reef, the soft whispers of the non-glamorous half of what made every Awoken trying to guide her out, trying to wrap her in some semblance of comfort. It knew pain and loss and hated to see her so, an emptiness in her where Uldren had fit since the day they’d met, since she’d pressed band-aids across his cheek and his knees and smiled.She hadn’t smiled since she’d been raised in that wreckage.





	Thin Line

**Author's Note:**

> If you want more (better) Acantha fic check out her start in [Involute](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16202252/chapters/37866971)

She had never asked for much; a place to sleep, well kept weapons, for Uldren to come back safe from every adventure she couldn’t accompany him on.

The world had slowly taken away everything she could cling to one by one until it had simply snuffed her out. It had felt the same as the Skyshock, the microscopic severance of herself at the hands of something else. Coming back had felt worse in her opinion. Ripped from everything soft and quiet and stitched back together far too quickly in the wreckage around the Dreadnaught. 

The most intact, called to a higher purpose, reborn in the emptiness of space and the silence of a prior war zone. Her hands had slapped away the Ghost more times than she could count, had screamed the little machine into stunned silence because she remembered everything she wasn’t supposed to. Her past had her chasing a death she would never be granted again. 

It had all lead to her being crowded into a corner by a man she could not detach the title of _Traitor_ from. 

“I highly suggest you back away from me, Zavala.” 

He shifted back just enough to be out of an immediate strike range, stern gaze locked on her own defiant one. She’d been ripped back into the world as uncategorized as the Lightbearers of old, shifting back and forth between what would make her a warlock or a hunter and it meant being too close to her was far more dangerous than it should be, and she rolled her shoulders when she had her space back. 

She had essentially resigned, slammed any weapons she didn’t make herself down on the table amidst the three Vanguard leaders and had slipped off into the recesses of the tower. 

“You are a Guardian, you cannot simply-” 

“I didn’t ask for this! I didn’t beg the vastness of the universe to rip me back into the world again!” 

She’d shrugged off everything that had made her the Prince’s Shadow, the hidden hands of the Crows, everything that had made her cool and efficient when she came back. She watched Zavala shift where he stood. 

“There is Light in you, Acantha, a purpose beyond yourself, surely you must see it like we do.” 

“What if I don’t see it, hm? I don’t think it’s there at all, you must remember how I was made, Commander.” 

Acantha watched him closely, the twitch of muscles near his eyes telling her everything she ever needed to know. Zavala was second or third generation, had been swept away from the Reef at the same time the Vanguard’s now prized Warlock was being put through Techeun training. 

“Surely so long away from us hasn’t wiped the Skyshock from your memory, hasn’t scrubbed the darkness from your blood.” 

She’d felt that tug more so now than she ever had in the Reef, the soft whispers of the non-glamorous half of what made every Awoken trying to guide her out, trying to wrap her in some semblance of comfort. It knew pain and loss and hated to see her so, an emptiness in her where Uldren had fit since the day they’d met, since she’d pressed band-aids across his cheek and his knees and smiled. 

She hadn’t smiled since she’d been raised in that wreckage. 

“No, I haven’t forgotten.”

Acantha’s gaze refocused on Zavala, shaking her head just enough to clear the fog from her head. 

“Then I don’t want to hear about how I’m so good, how I’m some being of Light. I know you remember who I am, everyone that went through the Reef before the war _knows_.” 

They weren’t supposed to, that she knew, but the stain of _Sov_ covered her as much as the markings on her face. She’d been torn into by enough Guardians since she showed up at the tower to have it made clear no one knew the story, they just saw an angry boy with a title too big for his shoulders and a bitch that followed behind him to clean up the mess. If it wasn’t for her Ghost forcing the heal while going through another motherly speech she’d still have the bruise across her cheek. 

She hadn’t felt bad about Mara’s death, had had the blame for what happened thrown at her feet. The only other variable amongst the three big names; Mara couldn’t take the blame as a corpse, Uldren was nowhere to be found (she’d heard too many celebrations about the Prince’s death for her liking, had worn the bruises well in the end) and it left her in the aftermath she wasn’t supposed to be alive to see. 

She’d never taken her gaze off of Zavala, had never heard an answer. 

“If you have nothing else to try and make me feel guilty for, I do have an appointment to make on Mars.” 

She’d found Uldren’s ship by accident, couldn’t stay away from it. She had a feeling Zavala knew she was trying to piece together the information she didn’t have, how a dead man’s ship had been anywhere but the wreckage outside of the Dreadnaught. 

Acantha was hellbent on figuring it out, even if her Ghost protested.

**Author's Note:**

> [Come say Hi on tumblr!](https://bluedarknesswriteheart.tumblr.com/)   



End file.
